The State of College Football

[LacertineForest]

I have always been a very casual college football fan, so I am sure many more die-hard fans will have differing viewpoints.

For all that I have heard about things like NIL, the transfer portal, and league consolidation being terrible for the sport, it seems to me that the games have become more compelling now.

Sure, it really favors larger schools with a lot of resources, but it's kind of always been that way. Even with that said, you still have big-time upsets like NIU beating Notre Dame, and that's not some isolated incident. Just a couple of weeks ago, a bunch of unranked teams took down heavily favored, ranked opponents.

When I look at the schedule, it seems like there are many more compelling matchups every week - especially early in the season, where it used to take several weeks before you'd see any of the heavyweights play each other.

Maybe this is all due to the CFB playoff system (the expansion of which is really going to amplify things), and all the other stuff I mentioned at the beginning is a negative, but not enough to overcome the effects of the expansion on scheduling, etc.

I'm curious to know how others feel about it, and whether you're running in more or less as a result. For me, I am much more likely to turn on a game at some point on Saturdays than I ever used to be.

[dplank]

It may take some time, but expanding the playoff tournament will hopefully drive more talent to schools other than the typical powerhouses as they will actually have a chance to get to the big game and compete. I haven't watched much college football at all since graduating from Maryland in the mid 90's because my favorite team simply had no chance, every year, before the year would even start, to actually compete for a championship. It just felt like a completely pointless endeavor for 99% of the schools and so I just completely lost interest. I'm hoping this change brings some of that back - but it will take time to see this play out.

I don't even understand what you get out of it if you're an OSU or Alabama fan. Like 3 games a year are actually competitively balanced and the rest are just played against dramatically inferior talent? How stupid. Ohhhhhhh, maybe one year you have a bad year and are ranked like 20th instead of top 4!! My god, the horrors!! I'd like to enjoy rooting against these teams, but even that is pretty pointless.

It's as bad as watching the Yankees and Dodgers buy their way into the World Series. Worse really....

[wab]

I have always been a very casual college football fan, so I am sure many more die-hard fans will have differing viewpoints.

For all that I have heard about things like NIL, the transfer portal, and league consolidation being terrible for the sport, it seems to me that the games have become more compelling now.

Sure, it really favors larger schools with a lot of resources, but it's kind of always been that way. Even with that said, you still have big-time upsets like NIU beating Notre Dame, and that's not some isolated incident. Just a couple of weeks ago, a bunch of unranked teams took down heavily favored, ranked opponents.

When I look at the schedule, it seems like there are many more compelling matchups every week - especially early in the season, where it used to take several weeks before you'd see any of the heavyweights play each other.

Maybe this is all due to the CFB playoff system (the expansion of which is really going to amplify things), and all the other stuff I mentioned at the beginning is a negative, but not enough to overcome the effects of the expansion on scheduling, etc.

I'm curious to know how others feel about it, and whether you're running in more or less as a result. For me, I am much more likely to turn on a game at some point on Saturdays than I ever used to be.

I think the purists hate it, but without the NIL and the transfer portal and all that jazz, teams like Indiana wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell at making the playoffs....yet here they are.

[Otis Day]

I will be honest, NIL and the portal have basically killed big time football for me. I get both, I really do, but don't like it. I turned on the Texas v Georgia game and didn't last long because I found the North Dakota St (#2) v South Dakota St (#1) game on another channel. That was a classic defensive game. 13-9, NDSU pulls it out late in the 4th qtr. 2 teams that have accounted for 11 of the last 13 national championships. FCS has always had a playoff and it lends more to the sport. They now take 24 teams. Why the FBS cannot do this I am not sure. They have made it better by expanding but seem late to the party.

[LacertineForest]

It may take some time, but expanding the playoff tournament will hopefully drive more talent to schools other than the typical powerhouses as they will actually have a chance to get to the big game and compete. I haven't watched much college football at all since graduating from Maryland in the mid 90's because my favorite team simply had no chance, every year, before the year would even start, to actually compete for a championship. It just felt like a completely pointless endeavor for 99% of the schools and so I just completely lost interest. I'm hoping this change brings some of that back - but it will take time to see this play out.

I don't even understand what you get out of it if you're an OSU or Alabama fan. Like 3 games a year are actually competitively balanced and the rest are just played against dramatically inferior talent? How stupid. Ohhhhhhh, maybe one year you have a bad year and are ranked like 20th instead of top 4!! My god, the horrors!! I'd like to enjoy rooting against these teams, but even that is pretty pointless.

It's as bad as watching the Yankees and Dodgers buy their way into the World Series. Worse really....

There's definitely a lot of hate-watching (I routinely root against ranked teams to lose - especially those at the top), but I guess I'm not as invested in "who is going to win the championship?" as I am in just casually watching an interesting game from time to time. I'm sure fans of the top teams don't mind dominating inferior talent - I mean, it can't be that different than watching the Bears beat up on the Andy Dalton-led Panthers or whatever. I get that it's like that week over week, year over year in CFB, but I think I would be okay with that if the Bears were good enough to consistently dominate teams. I do get your point, though - a bit different when you're talking about pro-level talent that's a lot more balanced than in the college landscape.

I guess we'll see how the playoffs shake out - I'm sure a lot of the usual suspects will be there at the end, but because it's a one-game, winner-take-all situation, I think you have a much better chance for upsets than you do with baseball or other sports where you play a series of games to decide playoffs.

[LacertineForest]

I will be honest, NIL and the portal have basically killed big time football for me. I get both, I really do, but don't like it. I turned on the Texas v Georgia game and didn't last long because I found the North Dakota St (#2) v South Dakota St (#1) game on another channel. That was a classic defensive game. 13-9, NDSU pulls it out late in the 4th qtr. 2 teams that have accounted for 11 of the last 13 national championships. FCS has always had a playoff and it lends more to the sport. They now take 24 teams. Why the FBS cannot do this I am not sure. They have made it better by expanding but seem late to the party.

I'm sure they'll expand it further if it's successful (I expect it to be very successful). The game definitely doesn't feature a lot of great defense at the highest level - almost every time top-ranked teams play, it's a high-scoring affair, so I can definitely understand how that would be off-putting.

[Arkansasbear]

I don’t like how the NIL is set up. Think it still favors the big schools that can overpay for talent


HATE the portal. A small school finds a diamond in the rough and he turns into a stud. Next year Georgia offers him a ton of NIL money and he transfer. Georgia gets rewarded over what a small school found, developed and displayed.

[Arkansasbear]

As far as the playoffs, I like a ten team format with the top two teams getting an off week.

Adds three games to the regular season format and still allows for a “bowl season” for the remaining teams. To me the bowls to a large degree are a gift to fans/supporters - your team did well? Great you can plan a mini vacation to watch them and enjoy their success. Now granted you have some less than stellar spots you get to visit. Also rewards those players with a game that doesn’t have many games competing against it for viewing so maybe they catch the eye of some pro team.

But I’m a traditionalist on this.

[Rusty Trombagent]

I don't even understand what you get out of it if you're an OSU or Alabama fan. Like 3 games a year are actually competitively balanced and the rest are just played against dramatically inferior talent? How stupid. Ohhhhhhh, maybe one year you have a bad year and are ranked like 20th instead of top 4!! My god, the horrors!! I'd like to enjoy rooting against these teams, but even that is pretty pointless.

It just seems like the majority of CFB fans arent so much fans of football as they are just extending their narrow identity. So yeah, most Bama fans dont actually care about the product on the field overall, just the wins and loss columns.

Meanwhile as others have echo'd in this thread, for actual football fans? This has been a really fascinating season!

[Grizzled]

Used to love college football when I was younger (back in the Paleozoic era). I loved the traditions of teams playing each other every year. New Year's Day big 4 bowl games. But college ball was pretty much dominated by a few teams. Definitely more competitive now but it's lost that feeling.

[Bears Whiskey Nut]

College football has been ruined and effectively turned into the NFL minor leagues. With players moving between teams, getting paid, and no loyalty to any school. To make it worse, now there are like three major conferences, and that's it. It's TERRIBLE for the students and their academics. Having to fly to from OR to MI just to play an in-conference Big-Ten game. Rivalries will go soon too. No one is going to care anymore about OR v. WA, or IL vs. WI, or OK v. TX. It's all fucked up. Hate, hate, hate it.